Tokyo Autumn 2008 Day 7
28 September, 2008 by MJ
Day 7 of 14, the most anticipated day in Japan. It’s Morning Musume LIVE in concert! Unforgettable eye opening experience. The fans, the chants, the girls, the lights, the music, just awesome.
Finding the theatre
Getting to the concert theatre took some navigating between trains. Dragged Wilson up at 6am to catch the 7am train. He says he has never woken up so early for a very very long time. lol. Anyways, about 2 hours later, we finally reached the theatre. It was only 9am and there was already a 100m long queue of, guys. xD The concert starts at 2:30pm by the way.
First encounter with the fans
We got into the queue anyways. Started spotting all the crazy fanboys, and a few girls. They had badges and jackets, idol t-shirts, all over the place. Little did we know all this was even before they ‘transformed’. There were even really old balding uncles in the queue.
After about an hour plus of waiting they let us in batch by batch. I was wondering why they let us in so early? The concert doesn’t start in another 3 hours. Realized after we got in that the queue was to buy their concert tour merchandise. There were sealed packs of random photos, posters, towels, fans, glow-sticks, t-shirts and other miscellaneous trinkets. It was like ordering from McDonalds, huge pictures of what’s available on the table. Just point to them and you’re set. I regret getting only 3 towels, should have gotten another one and some t-shirts. Argh.
The actual concert
After another 2 hours and some lunch, we were in the theatre! On the way in they displayed a huge board of signed towels by each member together with their greetings. I’m sure those could fetch quite a price. We were seated 12 rows from the front, a bit to the left side. The theatre was small so the view was ok. Anyways we took our seats and waiting for the place to fill up. Quite surprised at the number of security personal in the theatre. One at every exit plus several patrolling. We found out why later.
The Transformation
This was the amazing part. As the place filled up with fans, they all started changing into their colored t-shirts (each singer has their own color). I saw this 40 year old guy in a pink Sayumi t-shirt, along with a pink towel wrist band. xD As the minutes closed in they started putting on their glowing wrist bands, towels and other amazing glow stick contraptions. Best part was they started STRETCHING! like before exercise stretch. ZOMG it felt like the whole theatre was suiting up to go for war can!
And we’re LIVE!
Finally Mano Eri came on stage to start the show with her new single. At this point the whole theatre was standing. Looks we won’t be sitting for the entire show. She played her new piano single, and looked like a little angel with all the back lighting. Anyways after her opening, she went back in and the lights came on again together with the ‘waiting’ ambiance music. After a minute or so they suddenly cut the lights and sound, and the whole lot of them poured out in their yellow costumes (see photo above). The whole theatre just exploded in cheers!
Was quite surreal seeing them on stage live. I didn’t know Takahashi was so short compared to everyone else. And Eri was tall! xD Koharu & JunJun was even taller. The first 2 songs were super explosive, there was so much energy in the theatre, people jumping and screaming, dancing along with them. Yes they know all the moves! zomg. One guy even brought a huge turtle soft toy for Kamei. xD
After the first two songs they did their self introductions, then launched into Pepper Keibu. Ahhhhhh! lol. They also sang a bunch of new songs which i’ve never heard before. The new songs had less of a crowd reaction, as in they couldn’t follow along. But once they started with one of their older singles like Ambitious! The theatre exploded again. Now we know why there were so many security personnel. The dancing and screaming can get really out of hand. lol. There was even one part, in one of the songs where they showed on the huge screens what actions you should be doing and when to yell “YEAH!”. Hahaha super super fun@~
Encore!
After 21 songs, they ‘ended’ it and went back stage. But like all their concerts i’ve seen on the DVDs, this was the part where everyone shouts encore. Everyone was yelling encore! for like the longest time, felt like 5 minutes maybe? Before they all came out again and started on another 2 songs.
At the part where they did their individual goodbyes you could see the respective fans jumping up and down while they spoke. So if like Sayumi was speaking you could see a few guys in pink shirts jumping up and down. Then if Reina was speaking you could see people in blue shirts jumping. lol.
That’s all folks
After we were out of the theatre, we saw people looking like they’ve just ran a marathon, sweating and panting. They would then transform back to normal looking people at this point. But you could still see hints of their concert attire, like a pink shirt peeking out, or glow sticks in their bags.
Now i know why people go to their concerts, it’s not really for the singing, more like the experience and dancing along with them. Seeing the entire audience dancing the same moves with the idols was quite a sight.
Next year, front row seats anyone? This time i’ll be buying myself a handful of glow sticks plus an orange t-shirt 
Awesome photos here :
Woke up like at 6am, concert day today! Watched a bit of TV before heading out.
It's nice to watch Japanese TV. Their ADs are always so bright and cheery with nice jingles.
Heading west of Tokyo to Kanagawa, where the concert is being held.
Not quite sure of the place. Only had a rough memory of where it was on Google Earth. lol.
Outside of our hotel room, stairs to the 1st floor.
There was one night, one of the ang mo tourist was curled up at the corner of the staircase reading book. When i walked out i nearly had a heart attack. ._.|||
Taxi depot right beside our hotel.
Minowa station~!
Heading to Akihabara to switch trains.
Wilson was complaining he's never woken up so early before since his army days. haha~
Akihabara~! We're just switching trains now. Will be back after the concert.
While on the train to Kanagawa we spotted the 'Thunder Dolphin' ride.
Took a photo of the closest station, Suidobashi. We'll be back for that too.
I don't remember which station we swapped trains at,
but we were buying tickets here and there.
Got a bit lost again. Conductor pointed us to the right track after flagging off the train.
Where's ma train?.
We were in the middle, theatre was somewhere in 'B1'. Long walk needed.
Stopped by this place to have breakfast.
Not bad. Warm bowl of noodles after a long train ride.
This place was really cold. First time i had to put on my jacket. The winds were like omg.
Was relying on my superior internal GPS to point us in the right direction
after leaving the train station. hahaha~
Train crossing~
Good that they have maps everywhere along any major crossings.
So it's quite hard to get lost.
Finally we're here! It's only 9am, and there's already there's a long queue!~
the show starts at 2.30pm.
We walked around for a while before deciding to join the queue.
While waiting you could check out the seating plan near the left wall.
Quite amused to see the kind of people turning up to watch their concert.
This was the rest of the hall. Behind me was the merchandise corner.
See the entrance on the left? It leads to...
This room of people selling, *gasp*, Morning Musume stuff! Like, wah!
It's like some years ago along Bishan MRT, kids use to gather there to trade playing cards.
It's exactly like that here.
Except they sell photos, posters, fans and other random Hello Project related stuff.
They bring LUGGAGES filled with stacks and stacks of photos. It's amazing.
Limited concert edition ones, and the larger A4 sized ones are the most expensive.
See! Photos well kept in transparent sleeves. One of the sellers knew english and asked us about who our favourite members were and if we were looking for any photos in particular.
Man i tell you, it felt a bit strange.
They were in these raincoat looking outfits for the first 2 songs, introduction,
and a brief talk before disappearing to change into...
THESE! Outfits from their newest Pepper Keibu single. Awesomeness.
But it was only for 1 song and a brief talk 
For the next 3 songs, including Ambitious!, they were in these~
Because of the whole idol culture, such concerts are very different from say, a rock concert. They play up the 'personality' of the girls rather than their actual singing talents.
After a brief interlude, the 6th gen came out for a rather long talk session.
Next were the 7th and 8th gen members. The 2 on the left and right of the photo are from CHINA! You can somewhat tell they aren't Japanese.
The 'A' team was next. 5th and 6th gen members.
The 3 best singers in the group, in my opinion. This was a new song. 
They went backstage after Resonant Blue, and after 5 minutes of the crowd yelling
'ENCORE-RU!!!', they came out again in these gospel looking outfits for their new slow
tempo song, which i though was excellent because of the solo lines in chinese.
After the slow song they went to their end-of-show thank you messages,
took off their gospel overalls and launched into their last song.
Entire concert lasted 1hr 45mins. Not long enough!! lol.
On our way back to the train station.
I wanted to go for the 6pm concert as well, but Wilson was giving me the look. lol.
Ears were still ringing with concert music. A bit deaf now.
These 3 were quite cute. xD
By the time we reached Akihabara it was dark already.
Famous electric city for all things anime, otaku and AV.
Wilson went straight for his figurines. Wanted to get them before the shops closed.
Entire buildings of comics and anime stuff.
First time i've ever seen a 8 storey arcade.
Soundtracks and singles from anime series.
Was quite amazed at the amount of anime stuff. Shelves upon shelves of just, anime stuff!.
There were hentai comics as well. The higher you go the more obscene the comics. xD
Stairwells filled with comic strips as well.
I was more interested in these figurines than comics.
Really detailed. Makes you want to collect them all.
They have these 'pre-order' walls, where you can write your contact details and
slot them in the correct sleeves. Once the product comes in they'll contact you.
But once again the shops close at 7pm, so we had an early dinner
before heading back to Minowa.
Overall concert loot. Wilson bought 2 T-shirts and a towel. I bought 3 towels and their latest single. Came with a free poster too.
At this point even if we were to fly home tomorrow,
the entire trip to Japan was worth it. hahaha~
Born and raised in Singapore, MJ earns his keep by pushing pixels around as a media designer. Other jobs include getting paid taking pictures, as well as being a full time fanboy for all things cool & kawaii. MJ shoots with a Canon 5DmkII.
